Merry Christmas!!!

Interesting Fact - Christmas in Russia is not tomorrow. I mentioned this last year. Tomorrow is just Tuesday, the 25th of December. 

So we had transfer week this week and I picked up my new companion, Elder Abbott. So on Tuesday morning, we headed into Peter. It is just as cold as it is in Pskov. I think a little bit colder because they have got stronger winds, but definitely a lot less snow. We had our Christmas Devotional and were taught by President Clark's return missionary children. 3 of them spoke to us, one on skype, and we had practices and learned how to be a better missionary. Maybe to the normal reader of this letter, that probably sounds like a strange Christmas Gathering, but one must understand that we are missionaries and we don't have much of an opportunity to celebrate holidays via parties, gatherings, get-togethers, barbeques, fireworks, etc. But nonetheless, it was fun and most importantly we had food. Some lasagna and salad. Good times! So we then had to literally race back to make our microbus back to Pskov. I went back with the Senior Couple, the Gardiners, through the metro. That was my companions first few moments in the metro and it was rush hour and we had luggage and all of that fun stuff. But after 40 minutes of sweating in winter clothes, moving suitcases around, we finally made it our bus, and four hours later, we are back in our apartment. 

So this week, we were supposed to have a baptism but it hasn't worked out yet. We are meeting with Kostya again tomorrow to see what has happened and to know how we can help him out. So no big worries, I still got the faith that he can be baptized! 

So we survived the end of the world, I guess. So that was a plus! And we also found a new investigator this week by the name of Julian. He is from Moldova and he is incredibly interested in the Book of Mormon. We had agreat lesson with him last night with my companion. Elder Abbott is a great companion! A little quiet. Something that I am not used to, but he is awesome and incredibly dignified. It is going to be great training him these next 2 transfers.

That was more of less last week for you in 3 paragraphs! I did it! 

I realized that prayer really is an amazing thing this week. We always get the answers that we need, and not what we want. Anywho, the Church is true! I love being here serving the Lord. It's awesome. Especially during the Christmas season. 2000+ years ago, the Lord was indeed born, and that through Him, Heavenly Father gave us the chance to return to Him and live with Him again. 

Love,
Elder Tekulve

Merry Christmas! 

Novgorod trip... again!

Dear Family!

This week we had yet another trip to Novgorod and back.. I think I was done with those 3 months ago... Nevertheless we had a good time working there. I had to conduct a Zone Training meeting there, which is always fun. Novgorod is about 4 hours east of Pskov. It's a bigger city than Pskov, but it is just an ant compared to St.Petersburg. Fact - There are even two McDonald's in Novgorod, Russia.

Our Investigator Kostya is progressing SOOO much! He was supposed to be scheduled on the 15th to be baptized, but it changed to the 22nd, but now it needs to be changed again to the 29th. He is so set on being baptized, but the problem is coming to church. He has to come at least twice to qualify for baptizing. He was set on coming this weekend, but his aunt passed away this weekend and he had to go to a funeral, which is an excuse that I am not going to push. He is still strong amongst all of this and he has such a strong desire to be baptized. He has agreed to live by the Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, and Law of Tithing. He is set! We met with him a few times this week, which was always a pleasure.

We have another man, named Sergay, who we are working with who is very close to baptism. We had two super lessons this week with him and our branch members. We call those super meetings "Operation Knockout". We had this super awesome lesson with Sergay about the Word of Wisdom and we had 3 members to support him. He has some struggles with tobacco and alcohol but he really wants to quit it all. We had him say three times "I will not drink!" and then we had him take his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and crumple them and then throw them away. It was way fun actually haha

We also met with our pals Misha and Genya this week. Well, we had a nice walk with them around town in the cold. We are meeting with them tonight, but we hope to set some solid baptismal dates this week. 

Last Preperation Day we went to the Zoo! It was basically just two rooms in this building and some cages with a few monkeys. It was great. I can't get the computer to upload pictures, as usual. So I will try next week. 

I love you all! Soon it will be Christmas! How grand!

I know this church is true!

Love,

Elder Tekulve

I forgot to mention..So we got our transfer calls this week. I am staying in Pskov for my 5th transfer, and I will be training a brand new missionary.... named Elder Abbott!! I guess Tyler gets to serve a second mission in St. Pete with his pal Dsu.

Icicle-ville and the Genya

Interesting Fact - Russians never sit on the ground. Instead they do the Russian squat. It's actually pretty difficult to get down, but I have successfully mastered the Russian squat. It's not the usual squat where you are on your toes, but the whole foot is on the ground and you balance your weight on your thighs. It's really hard to explain. The crazy thing is that they can sit for hours and hours and talk and smoke with each other. But sitting on the sidewalk is a big no-no. You gotta squat. 

This week, we saw a lot of good stuff happening in our area. The only downer is that our investigator Kostya didn't come to church yesterday which means that he can't be baptized on the 15th. He couldn't afford the 2 hour trip to Pskov, which I understand. There is still a lot of hope for our main man Kostya! So with the bad news first, there was a lot of great things that happened this week!

We had set up a meeting with a man named Misha this last Thursday. We get to our meeting spot and he brought 2 friends, Genya and Vova. So we sat down in our branch building and taught the Restoration and it was perhaps one of the most spiritual lessons ever. It turned out, when we had contacted Misha on the street, he had actually gave us Genya's number, and that Vova was just there by accident. But Gennya is the one who is the most interested of the three. He actually came to church with us yesterday and sat in for all 3 hours, with a smoke break outside after each hour. He is a great guy who is incredibly interested. He really wants to find true meaning and peace in his life and when he heard about the Book of Mormon, he had the strongest desired to know more and to read it. He called us last night actually to wish us a good night and to see when we can meet again. He has a STRONG desire to follow Christ in his life and change for the better. That desire is the best way to break any addiction. I am not worried about him quiting smoking. To quote the hippie priest in Casper, "It will be a piece of cake... piece of crumb cake."

We met with our newer investigator, Sergay, who had called us his himself a few times this week. He has had some psychological trauma but he is a sweet spirit. He came to church this weekend as well and thoroughly enjoyed it. He gets really nervous in bigger groups so if it wasn't for the Mission Driver, Bishop Balashov (Bishop in the St. Pete Stake), he would have had a terrible experience. President and Sister Clark came to Pskov this weekend and went to church with us all. Pskov really is the coolest branch. I love it here. It's the best non-blood family I got in Russia. But anyway, Bishop Balashov just loved the trash out of Sergay and Sergay really loved church.

It's getting colder and colder everyday! That's why we got thermals. It's funny, I have already used my thermals and boots more this winter than last winter. This is gonna be a great cold-baloo. The boots I got last year were a bit too much for Peter in a very week winter, but they are perfect here because we are literally treaded through a foot of snow everywhere we go. Even on sidewalks, well the places that were once sidewalks. 

This was a great week! We are going to Novgorod this Thursday do some exchanges and zone training. The Church is true! Tserkov' Iisusa Khrista - sammaya istinaya Tserkov' ha zemle, i Kniga Mormona est' Slovo Boga a Plod' Vosstanovlenniya Yevangiliya Iisusa Khrista. Josef Smit byl Prorokom Boga! 

So Lyubov'yu,

Staryeishina Tekol'vi

Snow!!!! Ugol Chudyes (Corner of Miracles!)

Interesting Fact - It can snow a lot in Russia. A lot is an understatement.

This week, we got a truckload of snow, in just one day. We left Pskov and it was snowing slightly, not too much. When we came back to Pskov from Peter, there is giant piles of snow. I honestly think it snowed maybe 1 foot or 2 when we got back. I like the snow a whole lot better than the rain, that is for sure. And plus, just pack yourself up with thermals, scarves, gloves, socks and boots and you are set for hours. No but seriously there, there are giant piles of snow piled up by the street sweepers and stuff. It is awesome! Oh and the river officially froze on December 1st. Just in time.

This week, we saw a lot of miracles. Namely one man named Kostya, or Konstintin. He is a friend of a member here, but he has an incredible desire to be baptized. He was already set on being baptized even before we met him, but set a baptismal date on the 15th of this month and set up a plan for these next 2 weeks. He has had a lot of trials in his life and because of it, he is incredibly humble now.

Miracle number 2: We also received a phone call this week from a man named Sergay. He received a Book of Mormon a long time ago and somehow got a hold of our number. I am not sure how, but he called and wanted to meet. He is a very discouraged man searching for light. I felt like our meeting last night overwhelmed him with light, but in a good way. It is not every day that you get a phone call from someone very interested. So we accepted this miracle very very appreciatively.

Miracle number 3 and 4: We also had 2 previous investigators, who Elder Barrett and I taught, call us wanting to meet with us, which is always an amazing miraculous thing. One of which is a man named Fyodor (yeah Like Fyodor Dostoyevskiy) who happens to be incredibly interested and understands very well. When we first met with him, he didn't have a phone and lost contact with him. But he called this last Monday, and we met 2 hours later. It was actually pretty cool because we had a meeting fall through 5 minutes before he called. We were supposed to meet with someone else but he called to cancel, and then Fyodor called and we met with him at the same time we were supposed to meet the other man. God always has a perfect plan. We just need patience. Sometimes for only 5 minutes, maybe for months, even years. But either way, it will always work out. 

We went to Peter this week for a Zone Conference! Those are always great. It was really strange to see that some missionaries, who I was in the MTC with, are getting ready to go home in the next few weeks. (They are taking their early dates, and it also helps that we are in the MTC for 12 sticking long weeks). Time goes by way too fast. But during Zone Conference, I had to teach "How to Contact someone on the Street" which was a fun little teaching. It wasn' as great as the Elder Biff and Elder McFly skit that Elder Hill and I did, but it was still fun.

It looks like we get to Skype this year! So Ma and Pa, you will get some more info about that. 

All is well in the snowy plains of Pskov.

Love,
Elder Tekulve

Visa Trip + Service Project Combo + Thanksgiving Borscht Inbox x Drew's emails x

Interesting Fact - There is no Black Friday here in Russia, obviously, due to the fact that they do not celebrate Thanksgiving. It is also due to the fact the unwritten American rule that you can't play Christmas music or even THINK about Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving does not exist. So, hence, no Black Fridays.

This week actually was a very great week. To start, you are probably wondering "well what did Elder Tekulve do on Thanksgiving in Pskov, Russia?" . As the title so clearly states, yes, we did eat borscht. I actually haven't made it in a long time, but this was by far the best borscht I have ever made. Maybe because it was to replace the longing of turkey, who knows, but nonetheless it was fantastic. The great thing about it too is that there are still left overs, which I do plan on eating today after emails. :) That day was a lot of fun as well because we had no meetings set up so instead we went and street contacted most of the day. We asked everyone what they were grateful for, and most of the responded families. Families are indeed, the best.

We also had an interesting moment with our phone getting stolen this last week. It is actually kind of a hilarious story because we still have our sim card, but the phone is gone. It all starts out on a cold Monday evening on a cold wet bridge in the small city of Pskov, Russia. We contacted a man who was very interested in our message and wanted to meet the following day. "Of Course!" we thought. So we set up a meeting, and he comes to our branch saying that he has 8 people going to be coming. "Excellent!" we then thought. But the problem was that his phone just broke and that he needed to use ours, so he switches out the sim card, puts in his, uses his, calls his friends, takes out his simcard and gives us back the phone. He then left to go meet his friends. He seemed really excited too so we thought nothing of it. He comes back to use the phone a 2nd time, switches the sim cards back out, gives the phone back and leaves. He comes back a third time, and this time we had set up chairs, we had gotten hymn books out, we had been discussing what we are going to talk about, and he says he is going to be right back with the phone. Yeah, we should have left with him, but we were caught in the excitement that we disregarded the notion. But we waited for him... And waited... and waited..., and he never came back. We were bummed that we had gotten tricked, but laughed about it 10 minutes after it. I was more worried about him and his problems than I was about a cheap cell phone. I really didn't care for it, but I just wanted to teach him and help him feel the blessings of the Atonement. Interesting burglary story!

Also, this week, we had a great service project/visa trip. Here in Pskov, we live a lot closer to the border, so we had organized it so that we don't have to drive up to St.Petersburg, get into a bigger group of missionaries, go down to the border of Estonia, came back up to St. Pete, and then back down again to Pskov. You are looking at 20 hours of bus and travel time when we live an hour from the border... So we organized it with the branch so that the few missionaries that needed new visas go across the border, while I wait (my companion needed a new visa) with members from the branch in the car. We then drove back to Pskov and then a little bit further to a city called Karamishcheva where a less active brother lives. We went there and organized his shed which had built up with books. It was almost entirely filled with Bibles, interpretations of the bible, and religious literature. It's interesting to think that we can have sheds full of various understandings and various interpretations of the Bible and yet not contain the fullness of the truth that the Bible and Book of Mormon contain together. I also got a Hebrew Bible out of this project. :)

Anywho, I love being a missionary! In fact, I am incredibly eternally grateful for this experience.

Love,

Elder Tekulve

New Transfer and I am 21 now. Strange.

Interesting Fact - The blue stamp here in Russia is very important. Any kind of important document (identification, registration, contracts, etc.) require a stamp of the organization and it MUST be in blue ink. Blue stamps are super vazhno, as they say.

I had a great week this week, let me not lie. Although we had to go to Peter, and had a little funny luggage mishap while there, this still was a great week with a lot of teaching opportunities. I guess to start out, our trip to Peter was kind of a miracle too. We have a new convert named Slava, or Byachislav, here in Pskov. About 3 months after his baptism he had disappeared and hadn't been to church for a long time. We had found out that he had been evicted out of his house and was staying at some babooshka's apartment who happened to be very against the church. She was going to kick him out as well if he went to church or did anything church related. During this time, it was very difficult to get a hold of him. Our Branch President had known that this was going on and had a plan to try to find him a new place to stay near members, which he did. All that was needed was a copy of Slava's ID to register to live in a new apartment. Anyway, after 6 weeks of trying to get a hold of him, and not seeing him ever, he called us on Tuesday, right as we were about to leave our apartment to the bus station to go to St. Pete. We had about an hour and a half before our bus left but he called and wanted to meet. He eventually got kicked out of the apartment. But anyway, he wanted and wants to come to church but that was preventing him. So met with him at the bus station, and now he is back. He came to church this Sunday. That was probably the coolest thing that happened this week.

So we get to Peter, and it is 8 o' clock at night and we have no place to keep Elder Sherman's luggage and no food to eat, so we park our stuff right outside the assistant's apartment and sat Russian style eating Armenian bread (lavash) and frozen butter. It was actually very tasty. On Wednesday, I got a new companion, an Elder George! He is a great elder who is kind of hilarious. On Wednesday, when we were trying to make it to a bus back to Pskov, they had no more tickets left. So we had to go across the city with luggage and in the rain to a senior couple's apartment and stay there for the night. Good thing I knew St. Petersburg well enough to get where I needed to go. We probably walked for about an hour, but it just was hilarious to me. Transfer days probably look hilarious to the normal viewer. These missionaries in suits lugging luggage all over the city, and even in the metro, which is the weirdest thing to see. 

So we wake up at 5, and left to Pskov, finally! We have had some cool stuff going on. A lot of lessons that were not planned. We just went and stopped by our investigators. We met with the Priobryezhenskiys (The Transfigureds) and a few other investigators this past week. We also stopped by our good friend, Oleg, to cut some more firewood. It's getting darker and darker every week we go. The sun doesn't come up fully now until about 10 in the morning. The Russian black nights begin.

Yesterday was my birthday. Yeah! Mission birthdays are just like any other day. Although, the whole branch knew it was my birthday. The branch president gave me a MP3 disk of all of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir music, which I was really stoked for. I have grown to really really like Motab on my mission, since that is the only stuff we can listen to haha. Another babooshka in the branch gave me a chocolate bar and pinched my ears. I was alarmed. Her hands were cold. And then I taught Sunday School from the book of Ether, which was a lot of fun. Someone had made brownies, and then we took some pictures. Probably one of the funnest sundays on my mission haha.

We stopped by our favorite investigator Sergay and his wife last night. We had one of the most spiritual lessons I have ever had on my mission. It was about the Plan of Salvation and the understanding we can get from it. He is a great brother that has changed so much since I have been meeting with him. I will try to upload some pictures today but I cannot guarantee anything. This is the slowest computer in the library and it throwds is in D's randomly when it is not convenient ddddddddd that just happened on it's own. ddddddddddd so did that.

Anyway, we had a great week and the work continues. I love being missionary even if things don't work out how you want it to, this is still the work of the Lord and his Hand is ever present. The Church is the only true and living Church of Jesus Christ in the world.

Love,

Elder TEkulve

Novgorod... again! Moving apartments, and Operation Knockout

Interesting Fact - The old soviet holidays are still celebrated today but with different names. Today is the Day of Unity, but it used to be the Soviet Revolution Day.

This week, we spent most of our time moving. We have moved to a different apartment and we still are not finished moving the mission's stuff over to our new apartment. We have been living in this apartment for 3 days without beds. (We are moving the beds today). I felt like most of this week was packing and cleaning and moving around in the snow. We also went to Novgorod this week (4 hours east of Pskov). Novgorod is part of my zone here. We had to do a Zone Training again for this month. Once we got back from Novgorod, all of the snow has melted here in Pskov, so now it is a muddy mess all over the place.. yay! :)

Well that was the bulk of this week to be honest, but some very cool stuff happened this week. First off, we finally met with Karl this week. We taught him the message of the Restoration of which he asked a very golden question "How do you know that Joseph Smith really did see God the Father and Jesus Christ?" That testimony came through testing the waters. I read the fruit of the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, with a promise that if you read, ponder, and pray with a sincere heart and real intent, having Faith in Christ, that God will answer. "By the fruits ye shall know them". Karl really understands incredibly well and know he has a desire to read the Fruit of the Restoation to really know for himself if Joseph Smith really was a prophet and that this it the Kingdom of God once again established on the Earth.

Well anyway, we also had a great lesson with our investigator Stepan. He has been slowly doing progress and this last weekend we did something called Operation Knockout. We got a few of our members in our branch together on our meeting with Stepan and did a testimony meeting how they all came to know the truth of this message, this Church, and the Book of Mormon. It was a powerful lesson we had with Stepan and we set a baptismal date with for next Saturday which he hasn't fully said yes, but he will pray and ponder before that date. We are planned to make as much contact as we can so he can be ready by this Saturday. He honestly is ready, he just needs to have the desire to be baptized. He comes to church every week. 

Also! We cut some more firewood this week at our less active brother's old dacha. Cutting wood is incredibly fun for some reason. I am a big fan! On our way back, we were planning to take a small bus back to Pskov (it is 30 minutes away), but we missed the bus, so we did the nice hitchhiking trick back to Pskov. It was my first time! Now don't worry because the guy was incredibly nice, allbeit that every other word he said was some form of a Russian cuss word. But when we left, the neighbors asked the less-active brother about those two men cutting wood. He told them that we were missionaries and now his neighbors are really interested in meeting us and hearing our message. It's a potential family of four!! I really can't wait to meet them, so I hope that it works out.

Things are really looking up here in Pskov with a lot of cool miracles happening right and left. I love being a missionary and sharing this message with everyone.

The Church is True!

Love,

Elder Tekulve

Winter Came Early

Interesting Fact - St Petersburg is the furthest north metropolitan city.

Winter came early! We were out on the streets contacting in the rain. And then the rain turned into snow, and the snow stuck and it is everywhere! It snowed incredibly early this year wheras last year it wasn't until the mid-end of December that it finally start snowing. Needless to say it has gotten really cold really fast. I am already in my thick winter coat haha. The thousands of thermals that I have received in packages are coming much more in use lately compared to last winter. I really like the winter actually. It has a really awesome feel to it here in Russia. I think of all the seasons, winter was my favorite here, which is weird because I hate the cold. Summer is just too hot. In spring I am sneezing too much. Fall is too muddy and I have to clean my shoes and pants every day. Winter is just too cold but, hey it's better than the other two in my opinion haha.

Well this week was a good one. We got a lot of our investigators to church this week which happened to be a cool miracle. To start off explaining this, we have a less active brother named Oleg who lives in very trying circumstances. After about 2 weeks of searching for him, and trying to get a hold of him,we were finally able to get a hold him! He needed help cutting firewood so we got together with the branch president and left really early in the morning and took a train to him (he lives in a neighboring village about 30 minutes ago). We got our jeans on and grabbed some axes and chopped away. Cutting firewood is incredibly fun, by the way. I am a big fun. Maybe i should just live in a cottage somewhere in the woods. So after about 2 hours of cutting wood, he was incredibly thankful and was committed to come to church the next day. We brought with him two friends, one of which we are already teaching who is actually really interested. So we go to church, 2 of investigators that usually come are there: Stepan who is really close to a baptismal date, and the Karl, which is alwasy a pleasure to see him. (By the way, he has the strongest handshake I have ever experienced. It is fairly intimidating, but he is a joyful old guy!) And then a couple we have been working with showed up as well! The Priobrizhenski's, which means Transfigured. So the Transfigured family came to chuch as well! Our little branch had 21 come to church this week which is a lot for Pskov. I think at its height of activity, there was 30 somerthing members coming to church. I love this little branch. It's just like a family here.

We also had a great experience serving on another dacha (cottage) for one of our babooshka investigators, Glefera. She is a funny little lady. She is convinced that a pervious Elder Albee that served in Pskov is going to become the President of the United States in a decade or two. She is honestly a little riot. She is so funny and she just teaches us Russian as we pull weeds and carrots. She used to be a Russian teacher and so she makes sure that our pronunciation is perfect. We had another branch activity this week at another babooshkas place. We did a nice spiritual thought about repentance. 

We did a lot of finding this week and had a few interesting experiences searching for previous investigators that live in old Soviet Communal apartments. I love it here in Russia, but I love the privacy that we do enjoy back in the states. I sometimes forget that I am in a country that once was the USSR. This used to be so forbidden for Americans to walk the streets in this country, but now I am here preaching the Restored Gospel. The past 20 years for this country have been dramatic, especially relative to the growth of the Church here in Russia. It grows one heart at a time. 

I love being a missionary and I know without a doubt that this church is true!

Love,

Elder Tekulve

Sergay's Mother

We had an amazing week this week! With the exception of the apartment problems that we had concerning our water heater. There had been a leak in the water pipes for the water heater that had been leaking for a month or maybe longing and no one noticed. The problem is that the water heater is behind this built-in closet and I think I opened that cabinet once before, but apparently it had been dripping for a while and caused the downstairs apartments walls to grow mold and become very wet. So we had to call around, and talk to our apartment representative and landlords to take of this problemo. But like the old wisdoms of The Wizard of Oz state, "Don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain". I felt like it was just a big distraction

So this week, we had some pretty great new investigators and a lot of teaching opportunities with our investigators. We had some amazing lessons with two of our newer investigators Vladimir and Irina, who we have set baptismal dates for the 17th of November. They are some of my favorite investigators. Vladimir is so receptive and just loves the Book of Mormon. He really wants to quit drinking and so we have been setting baby steps for him like: don't drink for 24 hours, 48 hours, etc. Although I wasn't there, we had an exchange and my companion and another missionary went and taught him the Restoration. The other missionary recited the first vision, and Vladimir was so touched by it that he asked him to repeat it. After the other Elder recited the first vision, Vladimir began to cry. He is an amazing man who wants to make steps to become a disciple and a new creature in Christ. He, too, can be made clean from his addictions. 

We also had another really interesting lesson with a man named Sergay who hadn't been showing any signs of interest or progress, but something happened this last lesson. His mother is very old and dying and had called Sergay saying that she wanted to die the day. I asked if we could talk to her on the phone, and I sat and listened. I tried to discerned what was wrong and tried to teach her the meaning of life and that her personal mission is not over. I think I was on the phone with this old grandmother for maybe 20 minutes trying to encourage her not take her own life that day. By the end, she told me she understood very clearly that she is still needed today. If God wanted her back, she would have already died. It was something that makes so much sense, but it becomes so clouded by depression. Sergay was very touched by this and asked a lot of questions and wanted the scriptures from the Book of Mormon that touched on that subject. On that phone, I completely relied on the Spirit to help guide me to know what to say. It was an amazing experience being an instrument in the hands of the Lord. He really just uses us for His own purposes. It's just so awesome to think! One of the mroe amazing experiences on my mission. Sergay called me later that night to tell me how grateful he was that we helped his mother.

We met with another younger man that has been investigator since this summer. His name is Stepan and he comes to EVERYTHING; every activity, comes to church. But last week he stayed for 8 hours of General Conference. He had never wanted to meet before, but we finally got a meeting with him and got him to understand his own answer to the Book of Mormon. He told us he feels peace when he reads, which he never attribruted to his own actual testimony and answer of its truthfulness. And then another man, Karl, came to church agian this week. Last week I mentioned how we were guided to this random apartment that we had felt that we needed to stop by. He came again to church and thoroughly enjoyed it the second time. He asked a lot of very insightful questions and participated in Gospel Principles and also Elders' Quorum as if he was a member. It was awesome-o!!!

I really love this work, and this opportunity to serve these people. 

A great week this week, and not even a broken water heater could have stopped it. I love being a missionary and I know the Church is true! My testimony grows more and more everyday here in the Pskov, Russia!

Love,

Elder Tekulve

Estooonia, Conference, Carl, and stuff

I am absolutely exhausted today! This morning I had my regular visa trip to Estonia. However, we had organized it so that I didn't have to go to Peter. Pskov is really close to the border; almost an hour away. So we had organized it so that I would leave with the branch president this morning and we would take me to Estonia and back to renew my visa. We left this morning at 6, and I got back around 12:30. While there, we had to wait for abus in a city called Pechoriy which has a famous monastery there. So we stopped by the Monastary and it was beautiful but it felt like Disneyland. It looked similar to the castle there. We got back to some awesome lunch cooked by the Gardiners, the senior couple. And now we are here in this interent cafe! I am just so whipped right now. So if there are a few grammatical mistakes, words or sentences that don't make sense, just please bear with me. 

So, this week we had a cool experience of listening to the Spirit. We walked past this apartment building and we saw a light on upstairs in one of the apartments, but for some reason it had something really spiritually distinct about it. That apartment just stood out from the rest of them; not physically, but something was telling us that we need to talk to that person that lived there. So we decided to follow that feeling, so we get to where his apartment stairwell could possibly be, but we couldn't find it. A man politely that was close by asked us to leave, so we did. It was weird that we were led to a place to where a man told us to leave. Later that night, we talked to another man from whcih we got the complete opposite feeling, as in "get out of here", but we didn't listen to it. Even though it seemed even more clear than the previous feeling we had. He invited us over and it turned out that he was a Satanist or something crazy like that, and with that we left just with a weird feeling of fear a little bit. So we got home and judged both situations and discussed and decided to drop by the first man that we had felt needed our message. So the next time, we stopped by his apartment. We knocked on the door and waited. An older man came and opened the door. He seemed to know a lot about the true and wasn't terribly interested in listening to our message. but nonetheless we invited him to conference. Almost forgetting about it, Sunday comes around for Conference. This man, Carl, came in a suit, had read the brochure that we had given him, and came to church to watch conference. He felt a little skeptical at first but during Elder Holland's talk about Our Savior's conversation with Peter, Carl too began to cry. The Spirit was just so strong there during conference and he really began to open up after the conference. He is really interested to know more about the Book of Mormon, and mostly about the Church.It was a really cool lesson about listening to the Spirit, because it can really guide you to prepared people. We are hopefully going to meet this week with him.

Another investigator of ours, Stepan, who has been investtigating since July, came not only to conference, but all EIGHT hours of conference, on both days. He really enjoyed it. The really awesome thing this weekend was that we all watched it as a branch famiy. Between sessions we had two awesome lunchs and we all just ate like a family. I really love Pskov. This might be my favorite branch and area. I just absolutely love these people. I learned a lot from conference this weekend as it was my last conference. I watched it entirely in Russian this year around and I absolutely loved it. It was interesting to hear it go though another speaker, because there were times when the translator would be touched by something he had translated and he too even got emotional at some points. It just goes to show that you can feel the same Spirit even though a translation and even through the fact that some information gets lost in translation.

This week was awesome. We found a lot of great people to work with, had some good (and some bad) lessons and teaching experiences. But all in all, this week was great. I love being here! And I am exhausted right now. That's all for now.

I love you all

Love,

Elder Tekulve

P.S. - Congratulations Sammy!!!!! That's awesome news!!! Tell Benji Rasmussen that even after you two are married, I still got to make sure he is A-OK in the books. I am sure he is. He's a Rasmus! An Elder Rasmussen was my favorite companion! Anywho, CONGRATULATIONS SAMWISE GAMJ!!! :) I'm Happy for ya

Train Station Insanity

This is going to be a shorter letter this week because I have to print out a lot of stuff for Zone Leader stuff and also my voting ballot things. So bear with me!

Anyway, this week kind of took us out of our area for a long time. We were in Saint Petersburg for a majority of this week. I am really tired of taking busses and trains to and fro and I just want to stay and focus in my area haha. So we didn't have too much time in our area unfortunately. But with the few days that we had, we have found 2 new investigators, and got our new convert who was falling into less-activity, Byacheslav, back to church and he fulfilled his calling yesterday! He came early to missionary coordination meeting yesterday and helped us coordinate our missionary work with the branch here in Pskov. He also taught gospel principles and did an awesome job. He was in a situation with someone that was forcing him not to go to church, so he didn't for a few weeks. But he decided that he needed to go and he came back. It was awesome! I was way happy. 

Some other news about Pskov. We just got sister missionaries here! Finally! For a long period of time, like 3 or 4 years it has been just one set of elders in this little city. But this past year, there have been two sets of Elders here. And then this week, we moved out one of the companionships of Elders and moved in a companionship of Sisters into their new apartment. It's Sister Schlant and Sister Kafalas. We have given them a lot to work with since there is a lot of women in the branch who Elders can't meet with without the help of another male. So came in to a full area and they are excited.

On Friday, when we were all moving back down to Pskov, we ran into those kind of "everything that could go wrong went wrong" kind of days. Me and my new companion, Elder Sherman, the two new sisters, and the Senior Couple here all woke up early at 5 to take a train back. We were supposed to knock on the sisters apartment door and  help them move their suitcases to the train station. But we got there, but no one was picking up, and it turned out that they were in another apartment closer to where we came from. So we sent the Senior Couple, Elder and Sister Gardiner to go buy tickets, while we helped the sisters. We get there at their place at around 6:20 and they had accidentally left a suitcase in an elevator before the door closed and they couldn't get it. So we had to retrieve it and left around 6:30. Our train was to leave at 7:25. So we tried to race to the metro with these HEAVIER THAN WHALES suitcases that they had. I don't care what someone can pack that causes such a bag to weight that much. It didn't help that one of them wasn't a rolly suitcase and had to be attatched to a smaller one. We finally get to the metro at about 6:45 and it usually takes about 40 minutes to get to the stop we need to get to the train station. We got there at 7:10 just in time. The Gardiners has saved spots so it was fine. But I accidentally tooked the cramped sit with no leg room. Whoops. But we finally get there to Pskov. We leave the train and then the train leaves and Sister Gardiner realizes that she left her scriptures on the train but it left already. She goes and runs after it, but it was too late. Her husband, Elder Gardiner kind of just stood there, but we got him on a taxi and told the taxi driver to wait. So Elder Sherman and I went to go find Sister Gardiner and try to arrange with the Train Station about the last item, but we couldn't find her. After about 5 minutes walking back and forth in side the station, we found her and somehow she took care of it and they told her to come back at 5. She doesn't know Russian, but somehow she got that all figured out. It was kind of a miracle. So we get back to find the taxi, but the taxi driver left.... And we needed to get the Gardiners to the Sisters apartment to unlock it, but Sister Gardner had the keys. We finally just get on a bus and leave to help the sisters move and Elder Gardiner had to wait inside the stairwell for about 30 minutes. It was rather fun... haha. The awsome thing is that Sister Gardiner got her scriptures back! She came back to the train station and found them right where she left them. So the story ends well, but it was a very very tiring day haha.

The two new investigators we found this week is this man and his wife, Vladimir and Irina. We had talked to Vladimir right before we left on Tuesday to SPB and he wants to quit drinking and change his life. We stopped by on Saturday but they weren't home, so we decided to stop by the address last night and had a wonderful lesson. It really felt like that we started out the lesson really strongly with a strong prayer in the beginning. Vladimir was crying when we spoke about Christ and his Atonement. Those were the highlights of this week. 

I am really excited to be working with Elder Sherman this transfer and we are already seeing some cool stuff!

I gotta go!!

Love,

Elder Tekulve

Back to Novgorod and Mr. Fyodor and TRANSFERS!

Interesting Fact - I am not sure if I told you this one already, but you have to buy your plastic bags. You don't just get plastic bags free for your groceries. You have to tell them how many you want. The grocery store we shop at has awesome plastic bags for 8 rubles, which is maybe 20 cents. We use them as trashbags. Industriousness!

I heard the news. Grandpa and Grandma will be in my prayers, but I am happy that they are safe and in awesome hands, or in other words, under the care of my mom and uncle. Everything will be alright and will work out. I actually learned a new word this morning that means that. Oboidyotsya. It must mean that everything will indeed by okay. Faith in Jesus Christ can heal any wounded soul.

So this week, we had a few exciting things happen. I went on an exchange with another Elder, an Elder Starostin from the city of Penza, Russia. I really enjoy serving with Russian speakers because you just speak Russian all day and all night long. I really find it enjoyable. We met with a few interesting people that day who just love to talk. We met with an older man named Gennady Borisovich on a bench and I think we taught maybe just one principle. I really am not sure, but I just remember we sat quietly and listened to this man tell story after story. He used to serve on a submarine back in the day. Afterwards, we helped the branch help out a less-active member in need and then had an hour and a half to find people. We have a mission standard of talking to at least 10 people a day and inviting them to hear more. It's not terribly difficult, but we had service that morning, so we didnt have much to find people. We had an hour and a half to talk to 10 people, EACH. It was a great teaching moment because he kept on doubting, but I was persistent that we were going to achieve that. It was a very action packed 90 minutes, going to person to person and trying to start a conversation or share our message. Of course there were rejectors, but in the end, at 8:55, 5 minutes for the end of the night, we received our 10 contacts for the night.

We got a call the next day from our mission president, saying that we had to go back down to Novgorod because of an emergency. It is part of my district but it is still 4 hours away (I was so hoping not having to go back there because of the intense bumpy bus ride back). There are two elders who are being bothered by this man on the street regularly. President Clark wanted us four in Pskov to go down and do an emergency transfer of Elders and do 3 there and 3 here. An Elder Sherman from Colorado is serving here in Pskov and he got called to serve in Novgorod in a threesome down there. The great thing is he is quite the buff guy, so President sent him to Novgorod to get that guy to stop bothering the missionaries. So we get to Novgorod, ate a McDonalds, and turned around back home. 

So right now it is a threesome here in Pskov. Elder Barrett and Elder Starostin. It is a pretty hilarious dynamic trio. On Saturday, we got our transfer calls and I am staying here in Pskov and my companion will be Elder Sherman! What do you know! There is a lot of new organizational changes in the mission now that there is a Stake here in St. Pete. There are going to be more missionaries outside of the city, so they organized 3 more zones to prepare for more missionaries to be sent here to this mission. They made Pskov and Novgorod it's own zone (Zone is bigger than a district. District invovles about 4-6 missionaries and there is one District leader. A zone involves anywhere from 12-25 missionaries and involves multiple districts). So I got called... again. to be a zone leader. Haha, I thought I was done, but I guess not. So I am going to be a zone leader with Elder Sherman, but I am still a District Leader in Pskov. So we will see what happens haha. I am excited and looking forward to my next few transfers here. I love Pskov!

That is about it for this week. I am going to email my Grandpa because he is my hero and I love him.

Love,

Elder Tekulve

Novgorod and the World's bumpiest bus!

Interesting Fact - Russia's oldest cathedral is located in a city called Valikiy Novgorod. On Saturday it turned 1150 years old. The city name literally translates to "The Great New City". It is way new! Not reallY!

So this week I was on a lot of exchanges. Elder Barrett and I went down to Novgorod which is about 4 hours east of Pskov. I will first tell you about the road to that great city. There is at least an hour and a half stretch of just straight pot holes and bumps. We are probably going about 10 miles per hour over this deep pot holes. The bus was bouncing so much that you can't read anything, you can't sleep, and can't really think. It was a whole load of fun. haha. But we get there and Novgorod is this pretty big awesome city. I think it is about twice the size of Pskov there and they even have a McDonald's. But we get there and start our exchanges there. We had a service project in the Kremlin there. (Yes Novgorod has a Kremlin, and so does Pskov, and Moscow, and also Kiev. More or less all of the old cities in Russia have kremlins. It was pretty cool serving there. We first we moving tables and chairs because they were preparing for this big celebration on Saturday. We were there on Wednesday and Thursday. Apparently President Putin was coming to town that day, which is pretty exciting for a little (littler) city like Novgorod seeing how Russia is forever and a half enourmous. We then raked up inside the Kremlin. The Kremlin there is a lot nicer and prettier inside with old meeting halls and small fields around inside. We met with a few great families and investigators there in Novgorod on the exchange. There are two Elders there and two Sisters. Elder Branham from St. Louis just recently got called to be the Branch President there in Novgorod because they don't have enough members to find a branch president. That branch is even smaller than ours here in Pskov. Can you imagine that! He is 20 years old and is more or less a bishop. 

So then we take a bus back to Pskov.... On the way back it was about 3 straight hours of intense bumps. The sits in front of me were literally shaken out of place and they didn't remain in place. Aside the terrible bus ride, we get back and continue doing our missionary thing here in Pskov. We went tracting in some small houses out in the outer part of the city of Pskov. I really felt like that that was the REAL Russia. It was in these small dusty streets amongst small cottage looking houses (called Dachas in Russian). I really love this place. I had a moment when I just loved Russia like that a few weeks ago when I had to pick up a few packages for the Pskov branch. I walk into this old building which I think once acted as a Soviet services building, but inside were these run down hallways where there were small businesses. For some reason, inside that old Soviet building, I fell in love with Russia. I love these people. haha I can't really explain why I had that feeling, but it comes once in a while at random times. These are my people! 

This week, we had a lot going on with our investigators and we found 3 new investigators with another kind of in limbo right now as we were unable to set up a return appointment. One of the new investigators was a man named Alexander, who, upon our first visit, took control of the appointment and showed and talked about random stuff and about poetry. He is a very nice and smart man, but a little unfocused. But our second lesson with him started the same way, but I felt like I grabbed (with the Spirit) the lesson by the ears and shook it around. He really couldn't argue with or question my testimony. It was really interesting because he said you can find answers about the book by asking the question and turning to any random page and read any sentence. He asked, "What is The Book Of Mormon", and he turned right to, "Repent, Repent all ye ends of the Earth end be baptized in My name". The Book of Mormon really is the best tool to declare repentence, for us to change, and it helps us come closer to God "by abiding by its precepts more than any other book". But the Spirit was incredibly strong and he was touched in the lesson and we got him to pray at the end and it was one of the most sincere prayers ever. Once we brought in the Spirit, it had already been 40 minutes, we committed him to read and come to chuch and left. I really realized there at that lesson that that was truly teaching PEOPLE and not lessons. Its okay that we didn't teach the whole lesson but just a few points, but the Spirit was there and he was touched.

We have another investigator that we found last week named Andre who is just amazing. He had completely changed his life about 17 years ago and believes and just knows without a doubt that God lives. We had a very powerful lesson with him where he accepted a baptismal date and sincerely desired to become even better and become closer to Heavenly Father. One problem is that he smokes, and we are getting him to commit to take the new Addiction Recovery Program that the Church has. The Senior Couple in Pskov, the Gardiners are actually specialists with this program and have been working with it with others for years. We are going to get started on the program and prepare him for Baptism. He is a professional mushroom hunter. Mushroom hunting here is a PASSION. When it is fall time, it means "WOODS TIME" and search mushrooms like the Hobbits of Old.

Well this week was great. I really am grateful to be a missionary. I am so happy to be here and I love these my people here in Russia. 

Love,

Staryeshina Tekoolviy

Ya tak blagadarin za to shto ya zdec' b Rossiyi. Eta moya lyobimaya strana i eta nye vazhno shto I delyok ot doma siechas. I lyublyu etu rabotu i Gospoda i etikh lyudyei

First Cold in the Field! Yay!

Interesting Fact of Pskov - Every Sunday night, at the statue of Pushkin in the downtown of the city, there is always a gathering of seniors and older couples and they square dance/slow dance. Every sunday. One day, I walked past the riotous group on my way to a meeting, and they were actually listening to some kind of techno, but yet they were still dancing 1940s style. It was tenders.

So this past week, I got sick my first time! Don't worry, it was just a cold. It was my first time getting sick in the field so far in my mission. I got ill once in the MTC, but the MTC and the Field are two COMPLETELY different parts of your mission. But yeah, the cold here in Russia is the same cold back in the U.S., allbeit there is a little more Bear and Siberia in the fact that it's a RUSSIAN cold. 

We tracted a different part of our area this past week that we have been too. We didn't find any cool new investigators that way, but on the way home, we ended up finding a really amazing man who really is prepared; but the problem is that night he is going to Switzerland for 2 months and will be back after that time. He was really interested in our message, and also the Book of Mormon. We gave him one to read in the the travelling time which he gladly accepted. I think it is funny that the Lord will lead you to places at the right time. Maybe you think, Ok, I want to go here to tract/knock on doors, but you were to knock for just enough time to talk to some one else walking the opposite direction on your way back home/somewhere else. The timing of everything is just amazing. Heavenly Father always perfectly sets it up as long as we are ready, prepared, and worthy for such a miracle. God is a God of miracles.

We mostly focused on finding this past week since most of our investigators have disappeared. So we have to kind of start from square one all over again, with the exception of a few investigators we are still working with. As disppointing as it originally was, we have realized that there are still more prepared people in this city of 250,000 people, who will be ready to accept the message and to act on it. We also realized that we did all that we possibly could and right now those people are in the Lord's hands. We did find some really awesome people this week, though. We found a man named Andre and is a mushroom hunter and he invited us over so we could share our message with him, which is very rare here. It was one of the greatest lessons that I have in my mission, where the Spirit was just so strong, and it felt like we understood and were edified with one another. 

Well the work continues here in Pskov and I know things are always going to grow. Of course in a mission, as well as in life, we have those ups and downs, but I always remember that things can and will get better. Prayer is a mighty tool for our benefit; a holy connection that we have with Our Father in Heaven, who knows us perfectly and knows what will and what can happen if we chose the way He wants. This Church is true and this is the Work of the Lord. I am so grateful that I am a missionary that I can represent the Savior in all that I do and say. It is a blessing and a priveledge in itself. I love it here, I love Russia, and I love these people with all my heart.

Oh, and of course I love you guys too! 

Love,

Elder Tekulve

THE SAINT PETERSBURG STAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you can see in the title of this email something REALLY awesome happened this week. Since my last email, we went back up to St. Petersburg for a special District Conference with Elder Nelson from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He had come by assignment to establish a Stake of Zion in St. Petersburg, Russia. He came with President Lawrance, the Area President, and Elder Senkans from the Seventy. On September 9th, 2012, the first St. Petersburg Russian Stake was created. This really is a historic day. This is the second stake here in Russia, but it will soon be one of MANY stakes here in this awesome country. They had called a new Stake President (the previous acting stake President being President Clark, the Mission President) with his councellors, and they called 6 new Bishops (previously being branch presidents before), called a  new stake high council, high priests, and a Stake Patriarch. They is this new spiritual strength here now in St. Petersburg. It really was an amazing experience. When they were announcing this at the conference, the Spirit was incredibly strong. It was almsot electrifying. I can't really explain it, because no words can really experience the spiritual strength that was felt. 

Many many many prayers were answered this day. Thousands of prayers from thousands of Russian members, from missionaries, and from mission presidents. The next step in this whole process now is preparing and building a temple. I can't describe how happy I am to be part of this growth in the Church in this part of the world. The difference of a district and a stake is enormous. Now there is a high council of high priests. There is a stake patriarch so now they don't need to wait for a year for the area patriarch to fly in from SLC. There is a Stake President who isn't preoccupied trying to lead an army of missionaries, or so to speak. But now we can see what it means now for this mission. President Clark has more time now to focus on the missionaries and the mission. He handed over the keys to the new Stake President, President Andrei Klimash, and now President Clark is only in charge of missionaries and 4 mission branches: Petrozavodsk, Novgorod, Kaliningrad, and Pskov. Pretty much all of the far branches that take forever and a half to travel to. There is this new fire that is unquenchable here now. 

WE GOT A STAKE!!!!!!! Elder Nelson said it is Stake number 2980. Ah goodness. I don't really know what else to say. The Church is true. This is Jesus Christ's church and he is leading this chuch through His servants, the Prophets and Apostles. There is no doubt that this Church will just grow here in Russia. This place is thirsting for the truth as they had been kept from the truth, or even knowledge about God, for such a long time. Elder Nelson also explained the story on how the Church got recognition in the USSR, back in 1990. It was a miracle story that involved missionaries baptizing the Russian people in Hungary, Finland, and other countries, all of who just so happened to be a part of the government district in Leningrad, USSR (or today, St. Petersburg, Russia), and because they had enough people, the USSR recognized the Church as a religious organization. And because of that, missionaries were able to come to this beautiful land to teach these beautiful people. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Today is an incredibly awesome day. That's all I really gotta say today haha.

I love you all! The Church is true!!

Love,

Elder Tekulve

A Gamechange in Pskov, Zone Conference and the Pink Bus

Interesting Fact - I learned that there is a certain type of fly in the city/area of Petrozovodsk (7 hours north of St. Petersburg) that bites people during the summer. It doesn't just bite people, it actually takes a big chunk of skin out of said victim and flies away. Apparently you will fill a sting and look at current wound to see blood. Don't worry, because it didn't happen to me. I am much far away from this monsterous creature. 

The most memorable part of this week was that there was a BIG change in the Pskov branch this weekend. Since it is a mission branch and doesn't belong to a stake or district, President Clark acts as the Stake President for this branch. So he came this last weekend and I was his companion for most of the day. We met with actives and mostly inactives all around Pskov. I was his little translator like the good ol' days when I was in St. Pete. He called a new Branch President who is still fresh from his mission from which he got back last December. His name is Ilya Karzharskiy and he is a champ. Ilya and President Clark got together and gave callings to ALL members who met with and others he didn't. There were two inactive men, Anatoly and Dmitri that haven't been active for years. They have showed up to church every once in a while, but they are inactive still. We met with those two men and committed them to receive a calling. They both came to chruch, both accepted callings, and are ready to serve and come back. The Dmitri man was more of a miracle in my opinion. He had been angry with the church, was in a rut in his life, inactive, unhappy, and then President Clark and I knock on his door. He wasn't expecting either of us to stop by, but he left us in, and his heart was softened. He said he would come back and accept a calling. It was way amazing to see and to participate in. The more miracle of the story is that at that time, we were supposed to meet with two other people but they had cancelled, so instead, I had the idea to try to stop by via SURPRISE attack. And it worked. The next Sunday, President Clark ordained and set apart 20+ callings. Now our little branch is a more functioning branch! It was amazing. We had about 27 people come this week. The amazing part, was when I translating at the podium for President Clark to release the current Branch President, the Spirit was so strong. It confirmed to me and everyone in that room that the Branch President had served faithfully and honorably and that his sacrifice in his service was accepted. It was one of the more amazing moments that I have seen on my mission where the Spirit was strong.

We had Zone Conference this week. It is nice not having to organize every little detail of those conferences and worrying about the travel of other missionaries and organizing where they will stay and go and so on. So I got to be a normal missionary for once during a Zone Conference! It was great and I got really fired up. That night we got back and talked to a lot of great prepared people all over St. Petersburg. I forgot how awesome that city is. There are so many people; millions of prepared people. We just got of find them!  Oh to add, the bus which we took this last week was a bright bright pink. By destiny, the same bus we drove into St. Petersburg, drove us back to Pskov 2 days after that. 

I love being a missionary. I love Russia. I love this language, and I love these people. This Church is true and this really is the Lord's work. 

I love you all! Until next week!

Love,

Elder Tekulve

P.s. Shout out to the HAYLE HAM who got called to DONETSK UKRAINE! Поздравляем!!!! Я рад за Тебя! И за твоё желание служить Господу! Seriously! I have a Russian buddy now! If you be reading this, you will soon realize that Russian is an amazing language, that these people are amazing, and that is where you are supposed to be!!

The Classic Olga, New Elders, and the Byechislav

This week was a great one! A few notable things are that we got new elders that moved in with us on Monday. Elder Sherman and Elder Starostin. I was at the airport when Elder Starostin came in in May. It's crazy how fast time flies! We saw a lot of success this last week finding some really great people to teach.

 

 To start, I need to mention that I had to translate for some financial training an Elder Cook did from Moscow. He came into Pskov to teach the members about finances and I translated. A member brought his friend, Olga, to this training. She was given a Book of Mormon and this last week, we met with her and her friend Oleg. She is good nice girl who is really wanting to know more about Christ. We set a baptismal date on the 15th of September to get her ready to make those steps to become closer to Our Savior. We met this other man named Oleg (just coincidence) who works inside this parking lot hut thing. It reminded me of the good painful ol' days of working in the parking lots of Camelot being bored to death. Luckily for Oleg, he has a little shack. I had a barrel and a barstool. Camelot! So of course this man invited us inside the shack of parking lot wonder and let us teach him. He is a really really sincere guy who has gone through a lot. Probably one of the nicest guys that I have met here. But he taught him the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. He came to church yesterday and we had a Gospel Principles lesson with him. He asked in the very beginning a question about baptism, so we decided to change our plans from teaching the next lesson in the Gospel Principles book to talk about Baptism. He also is very eager to be baptized and agreed to be baptized on the 15th of September as well.

 

We are still working with our previous new investigators who are also progressing. One of the couples we are working with, Alexandr and Alyona, are doing awesomly. They came totally prepared in the last weeks lesson and want to meet some more. There are people coming out of the woodworks here and it's almost too much to handle. I don't think I have taught peope this much in my mission so far. I am really really really loving it here, and that really is an understatement. It's pretty interesting to notice that for the first half of your mission you are learning to become a good missionary. You practice, you learn, you study, and than you put everything that you have learned into action, and things start happening that weren't happening before. It really is an amazing feeling to see that you are really just a tool in the Lord's hands.

 

The new convert Byechislav was given to us to continue to teach. He really is such a cool man. He was given Priesthood a week ago and is just so ready to help out the branch. Yesterday, we practiced with him blessing and preparing the Sacrament. It was actually kind of hilarious because he wanted to practice as close to the real thing. He told the pianist, Ilya, to play an opening hymn, and we practice on hymn books "breaking" the invisible bread and blessing it. He really is such a cool guy and I am glad I have the opportunity to teach him after his baptism. Although I didn't find and teach him, I am just glad that I can support him even in this critical time. I am not sure if you remember, but last summer we were teaching a new convert the new convert lessons which was awesome as well. It was a new convert named Egor who is 19 and is now planning to go on a mission. His mom's summer house is in Pskov, and he actually came to church with his mom a few weeks ago. I was really happy to see him.

 

I realized that you really make so many cool friends on your mission. With members, nonmembers, new members, investigators, people on the street, babooshkas, taxi drivers. I can't believe that time really is winding down which is really disturbing me, I guess you can say haha. Well fall is about to kick in, which means rain, rain, rain. I am glad I am not in St. Pete during the fall. Its really quite windy there. The only news coming up is that President Clark is coming down with the assistants to do some recalling and reorganizing of this branch. It really is struggling, but nonetheless I love this little branch. It's like family. Yesterday, only 14 people came to church, 4 missionarys, 3 investigators, and 7 members. So we are going to make some changes and get this branch going.

 

That's all I can really remember about this past week. I made Hawaiian Hay stacks for the Elders in my apartment. Also Mom's Pasta Salad. Talk about tasty tastes.

 

That's about it ! I love you all! The church is true!

 

Love,

Elder Tekulve

 

P.S. - Give a big hello to the Rick Francis and Braeden Carter who just got back from their missions! If you have the Russian strength, give them a bear hug. Hello my American Friends!

More Rain, Pskov, New Transfer!

So this is the last week of yet another transfer. They are just flying by like geese. It is rather scary to be completely honest. It feels like 2 days ago when I was washing the blackboards at the MTC with some vinegar spray on a Friday night before we went back to our dorms. (Yeah, I know. Random memory. But yeah, it did happen). But I am so grateful to be here in this mission, in this city, at this time. This is a beautiful place where the people are just amazing. Their hearts are so full, and our role is to touch their hearts for it to turn back to Our God, and to praise Him. 

Anywho, while everyone is having a ball on the great lakes of Powell, I have sent some pictures! We stopped by the Kremlin today before we went to internet today. It actually is right outside of our apartment, but it was pretty cool to see. Well some explanations:

 1. Before we did service at this grandma's summer thatch. I was trying to do the Russian smile. I can't do it. My companion can though.

 2. Our district with the new convert, Byechislav!

 3. It says "I heart Pskov!"

 4. That is the main Russian Orthodox temple inside the Kremlin

 5.  again.

6. minus thumbs

So this week we stopped by a lot of addresses of less actives, previous investigators, and actives. We stopped by an address we had of a man named Yuri Priobrezhenskiy that we met a few weeks ago. Yesterday apparently was the Day of Transfiguration, and his last name means "The Translated", so we put the two and two together and stopped by his place last night. I have never seen someone so excited to see me before. He was so incredibly happy to see us that he just wanted to sit and talk all night long. We had only ten minutes before we had to run to another meeting with a man named Serkis. But we set up a meeting this week with him and his wife who are just the greatest. They are 75 and 71 but they act like they are 20. It is hilarious haha. 

We had a great meeting with that man Serkis last night as well. He is from Armenia and has a very strong faith in Christ. Everything he says is in harmony with the restored gospel. When we taught about the Great Apostasy, I compared it to a vase, which is filled with water. It was as if the vase was dropped and it broke on the floor. All that was left were pieces of the vase, big and small, but not a full vase to hold the water, or in other words, the Priesthood Authority that has been restored through a Prophet. They are as many pieces of the vase as there are churches in the world. Everything clicked in his mind and he grew very excited to know more. We were actually running out of time, because the one thing about time is that it goes incredible fast, so we set up another meeting with him this Friday. He is a great man. 

There were a lot of people that we stopped by with and I can probably go on and on about them all but I will try to keep it a minimum, as much as 40 minutes can give me. We got our transfer calls this weekend. I am still training Elder Barrett, but we are getting two new elders moving in, and the other two moving out. Soon there are going to open up an area for the sisters, and we got a senior couple moving in as well. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I had to shop for apartments this week. I had to dive into the realm of real estate and "home" shopping. It wasn't the funnest, but it needed to be done. I got called to be district leader, which is new. I have never been a District Leader before, which will be fun! Pskov is transforming into a real area with a real district, which is awesome to see such growth. Things are really picking up in St. Petersburg as well. I will let you know when I can with what is going on. But things are amazing here. I love it.

The Chruch is true, and it always has been. I love being a missionary.

Love,

Elder Tekulve